Lithography for editable atomic-scale devices and memories

Abstract

An atomic orbital based memory storage is provided that includes a plurality of surface atoms forming dangling bonds (DBs) and a subset of the plurality of surface atoms passivated with spatial control to form covalent bonds with hydrogen, deuterium, or a combination thereof. The atomic orbital based data storage that can be rewritten and corrected as needed. The resulting data storage is also archival and capable of high data densities than any known storage as the data is retained in a binary storage or a given orbital being passivated or a dangling bond (DB). A method of forming and reading the atomic orbital data storage is also provided. The method including selectively removing covalent bonds to form dangling bonds (DBs) extending from a surface atom by hydrogen lithography and imaging the covalent bonds spatially to read the atomic orbital data storage.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. An atomic orbital based memory storage comprising:
 a plurality of surface atoms forming dangling bonds (DBs); and 
 a subset of said plurality of surface atoms passivated with spatial control to form covalent bonds with hydrogen, deuterium, or a combination thereof; 
 wherein the atomic orbital based memory storage is a long-term static memory storage and wherein a unit of rewriteable memory ranges from 8-bit to 192-bit inclusive. 
 
     
     
       2. The memory storage of  claim 1  the surface atoms are silicon atoms. 
     
     
       3. The memory storage of  claim 1  the surface atoms are at least one of: germanium, diamond, graphite, graphene, GaAs, InSb, transition metal chalcogenide, and thin insulator-on-conductor, and thin insulator-on-semiconductor. 
     
     
       4. The memory storage of  claim 1  wherein the covalent bonds are only formed with hydrogen. 
     
     
       5. The memory storage of  claim 1  wherein a unit of rewriteable memory is 8-bit. 
     
     
       6. The memory storage of  claim 1  wherein the covalent bonds are formed with both hydrogen and deuterium. 
     
     
       7. The memory storage of  claim 1  further comprising a passivating overlayer to create archival stable storage. 
     
     
       8. The memory storage of  claim 1  wherein the bit density is 1 to 25 bits per nanometers squared or greater. 
     
     
       9. A method of forming and reading an atomic orbital data storage comprising:
 selectively removing covalent bonds to form dangling bonds (DBs) extending from a surface atom by hydrogen lithography; and 
 imaging the covalent bonds spatially to read the atomic orbital data storage. 
 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 9  wherein the covalent bonds are silicon atoms. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 9  wherein the covalent bonds are between one of the surface atoms and hydrogen. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 9  wherein the covalent bonds are between one of the surface atoms and deuterium. 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 9  wherein the imaging is performed by scanning tunneling microscopy. 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 9  further comprising selectively forming a covalent bond from a DB by hydrogen repassivation. 
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 14  wherein said hydrogen repassivation is automated. 
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 15  wherein automated hydrogen repassivation includes accomplished by any of an AFM-tip apex functionalized with H, an STM tip apex functionalized with H, an STM non-apex tip region loaded with H, a probe-free molecular method, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 9  wherein said hydrogen lithography is automated. 
     
     
       18. An atomic orbital based memory storage comprising:
 a plurality of surface atoms forming dangling bonds (DBs); 
 a subset of said plurality of surface atoms passivated with spatial control to form covalent bonds with hydrogen, deuterium, or a combination thereof; and 
 a passivating overlayer to create archival stable storage; 
 wherein the atomic orbital based memory storage is a long-term static memory storage. 
 
     
     
       19. The memory storage of  claim 18  the surface atoms are silicon atoms. 
     
     
       20. The memory storage of  claim 18  the surface atoms are at least one of: germanium, diamond, graphite, graphene, GaAs, InSb, transition metal chalcogenide, and thin insulator-on-conductor, and thin insulator-on-semiconductor. 
     
     
       21. The memory storage of  claim 18  wherein the covalent bonds are only formed with hydrogen. 
     
     
       22. The memory storage of  claim 18  wherein a unit of rewriteable memory is 8-bit. 
     
     
       23. The memory storage of  claim 18  wherein a unit of rewriteable memory ranges from 8-bit to 192-bit inclusive. 
     
     
       24. The memory storage of  claim 18  wherein the covalent bonds are formed with both hydrogen and deuterium. 
     
     
       25. The memory storage of  claim 18  wherein the bit density is 1 to 25 bits per nanometers squared or greater.